The aim of this paper was to demonstrate the trends of fiscal deficit and public debt in the Republic of Croatia, and to compare the values of these indicators in Croatia with the countries of similar characteristics. The analysis of Croatia's fiscal deficit trend has shown that Croatia, except 2017. consistently has a fiscal deficit, with a visible reduction from 2013. Since the fiscal deficit was consistently achieved, public debt was constantly being raised in the observed period, and the only significant change was in the structure of the debt. Namely, the proportion of the internal debt in the total debt increased, while the proportion of external debt decreased.
The comparison with the EU has shown that Croatia has a greater share of the deficit in GDP than the EU average, but a lower share of public debt. Furthermore, the comparison with similar countries has shown that Croatia is better than most of them in terms of share of deficit in GDP, but significantly worse regarding the indicator of share of public debt in GDP, indicating poor governance of public debt in Croatia.